History

The Saville Theatre stood at 135 Shaftesbury Avenue in London, opened in 1931 as a West End playhouse. In 1965 Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, took a lease on it, and found the arrangement that made it matter: the theatre ran plays through the week, and since everything in London was shut on Sundays, Epstein gave the building over to music one night a week. 'Sunday Night at the Saville' ran through 1966 and 1967 and put on some of the decisive bills of the era — the Jimi Hendrix Experience opening for the Who in January 1967, with all four Beatles and all three members of Cream in the audience; Hendrix again that June, days after Sgt. Pepper was released. The Beatles themselves never performed there, having stopped touring before the series began, though they used the stage for a press conference and to film promos. Epstein died in August 1967 and his plans for the theatre died with him.

Its Place in the Scene

Brian Epstein's Sunday-night rock series in a West End playhouse — London's most important one-night-a-week venue of 1966-67.

The Facts

Shows at this Venue